Responsive
by NushiKasai
Summary: During the battle to decide the next Hokage, it turns out that Sasuke's curse mark had not been fully suppressed. He flees the village after losing control. Unfortunately for him, Sakura isn't prepared to let him leave so easily - not without trying to stop the curse. After all, she had stopped it once... she could do it again. SasuSaku


**Based off a post on Tumblr that asked for a SasuSaku moment resembling a scene from the movie Howl's Moving Castle. So here it is :)**

**Honestly, music to listen to when reading this is Sekai no Yakusoku (_The Promise of the World) _ which is the ending song for Howl's moving castle. It's beautiful and can fit quite well with the one-shot. It was my only muse when writing this :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto.**

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The rocks managed to tear at her skin despite how hard and stubborn she felt inside. The dusk was falling; the last vestiges of sunlight gaping over the dark line of the earth before blinking once and extinguishing into the night.

Gradually, Sakura had to begin fighting her way through the boulders, as she could no longer safely judge how far she had to jump, and she wasn't going to waste time by measuring the distance she needed to cover.

All she knew was that she had to keep going- no matter the cost.

"Ngh!" She gasped with the effort of crushing through one boulder, wincing away as debris went flying away from the moment of impact. Still, she didn't stop.

Finally, after what had been hours of searching, her efforts yielded a victory.

Up ahead, the pinkette noticed a disturbance in the clustered rocks; and her heart began to beat faster at the prospect of finally finding what she had torn her arms and legs apart for.

Sasuke.

It was as bad as Naruto had described when she had initially set out from the village with the other jounin.  
Sasuke Uchiha was fully into the second stage of the cursed stage. During the battle with Naruto to decide the supremacy of the Hokage seat, it was revealed that the curse mark wasn't as supressed as had been thought.

He had lost control- leaving the lower half of the village in a state of chaos and destruction. Upon regaining a small semblance of control, he had fled. Sakura had begun to chase after him immediately, and later realised that she was not the only one who was doing the same.

But _she _had found him.

He had collapsed next to the giant boulders at the end of the cliff; his body slumped in possibly a mixture of defeat and exhaustion, and his chin resting against his chest. His wings were curled over his body; obscuring his face greatly as they nearly joined together in front of him.

Her fast pace slowed to a ginger walk as she approached him.

This was the man who had tried to kill her. This was the boy that she had loved. This was the man that she would go to the ends of the earth for.

Because she believed in him.

"Sasuke-kun?" She called out to him, even though she knew that he would've heard her approach from miles off. Admittedly, she was encouraged by the fact that he had remained where he was- for if he truly wanted to evade her than he would be able to. And something told her that she was a special case.

If anyone else had approached, he would've fled further.

Despite this, he gave her no indication that he had heard her.  
For a moment, she was unsure.

The moon shone down upon the ground; illuminating the path before her in the night. The cold wind blew harshly around her, and the rushing blood in her body was no longer enough to sustain her warmth.

Across from her, Sasuke was shirtless, and despite her distance from him, she was easily able to see the raised goose-bumps of the cold against the skin of his wings. The medic inside her was screaming to get him to safety, and the child-Sakura was threatening her mentally if she didn't rush to help him now.

Sakura wasn't exactly inclined to listen to child-Sakura. _She _had loved Sasuke and had thought that he would return her affections, when he had never shown her any response.

Suddenly, her eyes widened.

He _had _responded to her once.

"_Stop!" Her arms encircled him tightly; her face clenched in shock at seeing how utterly…malicious her teammate had acted under the influence of the curse mark. _

_The boy had frozen, but despite the fact that he was not very tolerating of physical contact with other, he made no immediate effort to push her away. Instead, he seemed surprised, but in a jolted sort of way; as though he had been asleep and now forced awake. _

"_Please…" She muttered again soft enough so that only he could hear the pleading in her voice. "Stop."_

_For a moment, nothing happened. _

_Then, slowly…gradually, the curse mark on his arm began to retreat. She watched raptly, as though not quite convinced that it was happening. Eventually, the small signs shifted back into their original shape. _

_Then he collapsed to the ground._

He'd responded to her once, she supposed, but that was when they had been a team, and he still considered her a friend.

But…she needed to try.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura whispered softly once more, hoping that perhaps he would reply.

He didn't.

The moonlight shone brightly against the ground; the pale orb in the sky full and contrasting against the black background. She stepped forward gingerly; partly concerned about startling him and also about tripping over a rock or something.

But then, when there was still nothing from the boy, Sakura knew that she needed to get towards him quicker.

Her speed hastened, and her steps were more confident as they took her towards the grey mass slumped beside the boulders and debris of the recent war.

Her feet stopped just as she was before him. His wings still obscured his body from her, and the medic inside her knew that she needed to examine him swiftly for any sign of dangerous injury.

Tenderly, her soft hands reached out for him, and gently grabbed a wing. The skin underneath her fingers was cold and bumped with raised hairs- an indication that she had arrived in time to prevent any self-harm through neglect.

She peeled apart the wings, revealing the face of Sasuke Uchiha. Or, partially.

He was still in the curse stage; meaning that his skin was a dark, clay-coloured grey and a black, four-pointed star spread across the front of his nose up to edge of his lower brow. With his head slumped forward, the long, curse-influenced hair fell down his back, but some strands had become matted and knotted from the escape and battle.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun," Sakura muttered to herself, genuine sadness rippling through her at the visage before her. Because, despite how monstrous some of his lesser 'fangirls' would view him now, and how weak, horrible or utterly barbaric he could be perceived…through her eyes, Sakura still saw the Sasuke that she had once known.

Before her…he was still the boy that she had loved.

She reached forward with her shaking hands and gently pressed them against his cheeks- immediately noticing how cold and nearly frozen his skin was.

"Stop," Sakura muttered, hoping that perhaps her words would trigger a memory in the man's mind; a memory of a lesser woman- a weak girl- who had clung to him and managed to repress the beast roaring through the curse.

His wings furled slightly, and she withheld the gasp of shock in her throat as the meagre light of the moon was reduced heavily as his hand-wings curled around both of their forms. This, of course, forced her to move closer to the man; her forehead pushed against his gently and her torso pressed against his bare, grey chest.

"Please…" she repeated, allowing the pleading and desperation in her throat and heart to reach her words. The wings closed in around her completely, blocking out all light, and she had to resort to purely touch to figure her way around. "Stop."

Despite his non-responsive state, as she manoeuvred herself higher, she was able to feel the rushing of air brush against her skin; which gave her a fair idea of his face. Her hand traced the outline of his cheek, and moved gently down to towards his mouth.

Her fingers moved along his dry, frozen lips, and hoped that her next actions would be able to somehow trigger him from his state of numbness.

"Please…" She whispered, before leaning forward and pressing her lips against his; her warmth immediately seeping into his cold body. "Please come back, Sasuke-kun."

He remained unresponsive…her lips merely kissing a doll; glassy eyed and faded- it still resembled its model but it was hollow and a husk of the vibrancy it once possessed.

After a second of meagre and fruitless hope, her eyes closed in disappointment as she allowed her lips to fall from his.

Only to have them pulled back in a forceful kiss.

Her eyes snapped open in surprise, and grey-tinged fingers wrapped around her chin to pull her closer than she already was.

Her emerald gaze met red, and there was an urgency in the eyes of Sasuke Uchiha as his vision depended entirely of her at that moment as he kissed her. For him, the world had consisted of the shadows cast by his cursed wings, but there had been a sudden break of moonlight and flashes of pink and green.

_Sakura._

He pulled away for a moment to breathe, and she gasped in air and leant her forehead against his in weariness- the suddenness of his motions shocking her into exhaustion.

"Sasuke-kun?" She asked, peering down at his red eyes with an expression of confusion and hope. "Are you okay?"  
It was a stupid question; so full of innocence and a child's naivety despite her high-ranking position in the village, but it was so…so _Sakura. _

He returned her gaze.

"Hn," he replied, before allowing his wings to unfurl from around them in answer to her question to his wellbeing. But still, he supposed she deserved a verbal answer. "I'll be fine, Sakura."

She blinked for a moment, surprised that he had bothered to respond to her, before a small smile began to tug at her lips.

"Your curse mark," she muttered to him, and there was an edge of tenderness about her expression that caused an emotion of warmth and assurance to soothe through every inch of his body. "It's fading."

And sure enough, as he looked down at his body, the mark was fading. His grey hand-wings were retreating. His grey-tinged skin was returning to simply being skin.

As he met the eyes of the girl before him; the girl who, despite all of his attempts to detach himself from, continuously managed to pry her way back into his heart and life…he couldn't help but smirk slightly.

"You're annoying," he told her, but there wasn't any malice to his words. Merely what could only be described as fondness.

"You drag me all the way out here and then call me annoying?" Sakura asked with a playful lilt to her tone. "You really don't know the first thing about women, Sasuke-kun."  
He was silent.

"You didn't need to come after me," Sasuke muttered to her, turning his head away as he considered the severity of what he had done. "It was dangerous."

The pinkette nodded, because she knew that it had been very risky of her; the curse mark changed the way that Sasuke thought, and if she didn't appeal to the greediest side of him, then the consequences could have been fatal.

But that hadn't occurred to her at all.

"You needed me here," she replied to him, smiling tenderly at him as she raised a hand to press it against his cheek. "And we've been in the same situation before."

He didn't shy away from her touch.

"I was protecting you then," he replied, showing that he also remembered the event quite well. "I wasn't this time."  
The woman scoffed and smiled knowingly at her frustratingly stubborn teammate and friend.

"Are you saying that you wouldn't protect me again?" She asked, staring down into his eyes that had now faded back into their normal ebony shade.

Despite the lightness to her words, he took them to heart, and as he returned her gaze, he raised a hand and wrapped it around her neck. She allowed him to pull her closer down towards him until his lips skimmed against the surface of hers once more.

"I would never let another man touch you again," Sasuke replied intensely, his breath brushing against hers skin. His lips twitched in a smug smile as he looked at her and considered his previous words. "But you would never let me protect you so much."

The woman shrugged, as though to say 'what can you do'? Despite that, a proud feeling spread throughout her entire being as she realised that through their brief meetings over the past few years, Sasuke had noticed her increasing strength and stubbornness.

"I can take care of myself," Sakura grinned, but then she surveyed her companion once more. "I wish I could currently say the same for you, though…"

"What a medic," he muttered, before releasing her neck from his hold and allowing a shiver of the cold to wrack across his body.

She rose to her feet and promptly gripped the wrist of the Uchiha. Pulling him up beside her, she noted that he was still slightly too weak to walk on his own, and so she rested him against her shoulder.

"Come on, Sasuke-kun," Sakura smiled at him before gesturing that they start moving. "You have very concerned friends waiting for you at home."

And as they moved back towards the village, Sakura could have sworn that she heard Sasuke mutter something about a 'stupid dobe' underneath his breath.

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